Julie

The arts are my passion: drama, music, opera, dance, sculpture, painting, art history, architecture, film, literature... old and new... national and international... and after a period living, writing & performing in Australia and Italy this passion has brought me back to London. 'Blog Julie Arts' is a spin-off after success with 'There's Always A Story' at blogjulie.com

Monday, 23 February 2015

I have said in this blog that I write arts-life crossover
stories, as opposed to artistic criticism.I have said, too, that I don’t tend to write about productions I don’t
like.

I’ve just changed my mind.

Why?Because I
have seen a film that very much troubles me.And I saw it before I heard the furore.

Usually I go to the cinema to see a particular director
or actor’s work.Or I go because I’m interested
in the story.Occasionally I
go to a random film because that’s what is on when I am meeting a friend at a
particular location. This was one of those
occasions, and random is what our experience turned out to be.

Kingsman is an
action comedy which appeared to suit our Friday evening mood.It was never going to be a great film, the
premise too far-fetched and the characters so light they are flimsy.However the film is entertaining, sometimes
slick, fun and silly.That is not a negative
observation as the same can be said of some of my writing, it is just what it
is.For most of the film it also ‘does
what is says on the packet’.It bubbles
along and gives you a giggle.So far so good...

Until, that is, you get to the final scene.You may have heard about the controversy and
if not you should.Because what the
makers of this film have done by way of a substitute for a real ending is disgraceful.Indeed I would go so far as to say, criminal.

If you think I’m exaggerating, let me ask:

·Do you agree, over history, that it is a
travesty warriors have arrived in a place and, no sooner asserted their
authority, gone on to rape and pillage?

·Do you think a super hero, a special agent,
or anyone acting the part of a ‘protector’ should take advantage of the
vulnerable?

·Do you agree there are standards and values which
popular cultural has some responsibility to uphold?

·Do you agree that sexism is wrong?

·Do you agree that information which is disseminated
and shown to be discriminatory – especially in Great Britain, the United States
and countries claiming the moral high ground – should be allowed to circulate
in the public realm without repercussions?

·Do you think power should be used wisely and women and young people protected?

·And do you agree that a film should be
classified as suitable for young people if the contents of that film – physical
or psychological – could harm them?

If you have answered yes to any or all of these questions
then even before you know the details you should appraise Kingsman with your eyes open.

I am not a prude; nor is the young woman, Emma, seated with me
in the cinema.She is educated, in her
early twenties, and working at the London School of Economics.Yet we were utterly shocked by the sudden
turn of this film. Indeed everyone in
the cinema was stunned; the general reaction one of jaw-dropping silence.We, and many, are appalled by what the makers
of this film – and those who released it – think is an acceptable way to end a
film in the 21st Century.

Has the fight for women’s rights, for respect and
equality, receded that far?

Is sexism so entrenched such that the people who
contributed to the decision to leave that ridiculous scene in the film can no
longer see it?Or can they see it but
just don’t care?

Or do men really feel that it is not only acceptable, but
humorous, to send a message to young people around the world that it is normal
and impressive for a conquering male to use his power to take extreme sexual liberties
where and how he may?

I make no judgement on anal sex.What consenting adults do in their own beds doesn’t
concern me in the least.It is the context
here which is so reprehensible:

·the woman offering up her “arsehole”, as she
so elegantly puts it, is captive and reliant upon the hero for her release from
prison

·the hero has champagne and acts as if it’s
all a laugh and why shouldn’t he – a virile and conquering male – get from the
damsel in distress what all men want (so it suggests)

·the woman doesn’t know him and has had no
relationship with him (barely with the audience)

·there is no intimacy or respect

·there is no relevance to the story

·there is an underlying aggression about his
desire (and his arrogance)

·there is aggression too in the implied need
for him to take the one thing left on this rescued planet that he hasn’t yet
conquered

·and it ruins an otherwise frivolous romp of a
narrative - undermining anything of value which has gone before (including all the
performances)

I didn’t need to read a review to know that this ‘ending’
was a spoof on the ending of James Bond films, where Bond always scores the
girl.But that excuse from the director is
as pathetic as the scene itself – because it lacks all Bond charm and
class.Even the Bond franchise has grown
with the times and wouldn’t dream of being so crass.

Kingsman is
a desperate wannabe and – unless the ending is changed - it doesn’t deserve an
audience.Nor does it deserve for it to
be allowed to continue to play in cinemas, or God Forbid, on television.

We should all be considering this very seriously.

What message is this widely released film sending young
women and boys – children from ten to twenty-five years – who have limited
sexual and sensual experience?For it
seems to me, and the girlfriend who saw it with me, to suggest that women are
to be conquered as and how a man pleases, and it is the woman’s job to comply,
to lie down and take it, whether she wants it or not – and especially if she is
in a position without power and therefore reliant upon him for her liberty.

Where is the respect?Where are the women who were involved in this process of decision-making
and who did not stand up and say “this is not acceptable now or ever”?Or did they, but weren’t heard?Because doesn’t that tell you what a fight we still have on our hands to resist the
ugly tentacles of sexism?

For make no mistake (and again I say this without reading
any other commentary), any film-goer knows that this was not a decision made by
a few people, but many - many men and women over many months from draft scripts,
to approved script, in the shooting, editing, post-production, marketing, classification
and release of the movie.This is no
accident or over-sight.The ending
chosen for this film is intentionally arrogant and shocking – and every single
one of these people should be ashamed of themselves. And so should we if we do nothing about it.

I have never been as depressed at the end of a film as I
was at the end of Kingsman – because I
thought the world had made some progress.

It is no wonder we can’t protect girls and women from
enforced circumcision in other parts of the world, from every sort of
enslavement, if we think a film with an ending like Kingsman is acceptable.

It isn’t.

It isn’t even funny.

We need to find and harness our outrage.Don’t reserve it for the current episodes of Selfridge, where one hundred years ago
women and men seemed to have more fight for the subject of sexism.

All the young boys and girls you care about are relying
on you.

P.S. If you want to see a film which
takes discrimination head on, which moves you, is worth the ticket price, and
leaves you (and the world) uplifted and inspired, then give Kingsman a big
miss... and see SELMA. Everyone involved in that project can be proud.

Wednesday, 11 February 2015

I was going to name this blog post, So Very
Beautiful.But when a word is already
perfect additional adjectives muddy the waters.

The same can be said of Beautiful – The Carole King Musical which has just started previews
in London.Never did a word, a title, a
song, more aptly describe the experience you are going to have at the Aldwych
Theatre.Everything about this story,
this snapshot of life, this celebration of living, learning, loving and making
music – the thing its heroine was born to do - is beautiful.Beautiful too are the friendships, the
challenges, the humour and the fun which is had on the stage, in the auditorium
and no doubt back stage.

I don’t write blogs about the arts to be a critic.I can’t, if I still have ideas of returning to
a performing career. I write arts
commentary – what I like to call arts-life crossover stories.And I don’t write about a production if I don’t
think it’s good.

Well, this new London production - privileged, as I was,
to attend the final dress - is an arts-life crossover story if ever there was
one.It is a jukebox musical in that it
tells the truth about the lives of the musicians and performers who crossed
paths with Carole King and Gerry Goffin when they began to collaborate for a long
series of hits.But it is more.

Like Jersey Boys
(a favourite of mine as you can see from earlier posts) this retrospective gets
well below the skin.The excellent book for
Beautiful by Douglas McGrath,
combined with inspired direction by Marc Bruni and thoroughly entertaining choreography
by Josh Prince, give audiences a real chance to understand the journey which
made Carole King the person she is, to appreciate the nuances of what making
music was all about in the 60s and 70s, and to feel the complexities which love
in the new age threw up for people when the rule book was no longer safe and reliable.

Beyond that Beautiful
is slick, witty, finely designed and costumed, extremely well cast and
delivered (without exception), that you will have so much fun you will be
bopping not just the night you see it but all through the next day while reaching
for Spotify because your vinyl copy of Tapestry
is in a box in Australia somewhere.As I
said on FB to mates, if you don’t enjoy Beautiful
you must be dead, or so boring that you might as well be dead.

I was so moved and satisfied by this engaging theatrical
experience that I’m already planning to see it again.I’m ridiculously jealous of the cast and
creative team who are working on it – and make no mistake, a star is born in
Katie Brayben playing Carole... superbly companioned by Alan Morrissey, Lorna
Want, Ian McIntosh, Gary Trainor and Glynis Barber (playing Goffin, Cynthia Weil, Barry Mann, Donnie Kirshner and Genie Klein respectively).I can’t
stop singing “you’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and
show the world all the love in your heart...”.And I’m so keen to get back to the soundtrack - to which I’m happy I still remember the words, even though it’s
been years - that this is the shortest blog I’ve ever written.